Help With A Foreign (French?) Handstamp On A NSW Registration Stamp

Hi folks,

I have a part strike of what I think may be a French handstamp (just a hunch) on a New South Wales perforated registration stamp, which was in use from 1860 to 1867.

The visible seriffed letters say SMOD.

Can anyone identify this postal marking?

Thanks folks

Wow. Can't you do a slightly better scan? I can't see any details at all.

Anyone who's seen my scans would know they're very good, even if I say so myself

I've had the image above since April 2021, taken from an ebay lot where the source file clearly wasn't as good as we'd all like.

I've sharpened and negatived the image, shown below.

Between the two strikes it's quite clear, even with my old eyes, that there's SMOD showing. The M is weak in the lower strike.

Bobby De La Rue,

There was a "Sydney Money Order Office" (established 1863) at the time this stamp was in use.

Perhaps the last letter is a smudged 'O' rather than a 'D'?

Some links (no cancellation, unfortunately):

• 1863 Letter from the Money Order Office in George St:
  https://archives.cityofsydney.nsw.g...view/1090913


• Established January 1863: https://archive.org/stream/newsouth...oog_djvu.txt


• Auction of 1866 Sydney Money Order Office 'OHMS' envelope
  to Bowenfels: https://www.statusint.com/catalogue/377stamp.pdf

Thanks for having a look FDS. I know the Money Order Office had a circular datestamp (White p.386) and it's seen on Bowenfels material.

I had a look through a swag of auction catalogues during the week. It looks similar to straight line handstamps used in France, Prussia and Sweden.

I'm going to run with your idea though. Maybe it says SMOO instead of SMOD

The SMOO spelling drew a blank. I'm quite sure it's an OD at the end.

I've found some very useful tools when searching for possible names.

The first one is a geonames search. It didn't really help me too much in this case but could still prove handy for others, and maybe me down the track!

https://www.geonames.org/advanced-s...h.html?q=od&


The second one is just brilliant.

https://whgazetteer.org/search/

Using the 'search contains' option, I entered OD and the results showed the majority of places are in Germany.

Could OD be an abbreviation for Oder?